


to study death

by spacehair



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, lup's pyromania results in a few deaths, taako dies but it's peaceful and good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 02:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13331343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacehair/pseuds/spacehair
Summary: The five shapes Death took for Taako.or.Five drabbles on the relationship between Taako and Death.





	to study death

Death is a parent. 

Fully elven children are exceptionally rare; the stress of carrying a child for – at the very least – a year, is usually just too much for the mother’s body. Even in the womb elves take life at a snail’s pace. One fully elven child always runs a too-big risk of draining the mother of all her life.

The twins never know a mother.

The woman is dead before her youngest even begins to wail. Lup and Taako will never know their mother. They will never know the deep, horrible, writhing hatred in her heart. She never wanted two, barely wanted one. She could feel them taking her life, and she despised them. Three hundred was just too young.

Perhaps it’s this hatred that brings Death forward.

Death embraces the quiet twin, the younger one that stole the last breath of life from his mother. Death wraps him in a melancholy blanket that will never fully leave him. Death kisses Taako’s forehead, leaving a mark, a promise of finality.  

The twins only see their father.

Disgusted with the outcome, with the _death_ of his love, a father turns his back on his two. He never touches them, leaving them to the nannies that dote on the trouble makers. Eventually he can’t take looking at them. There’s too much of her. Too much of trouble. Too much of life.

He holds their hands for the first time ever as they walk. They walk until the little legs are too exhausted to carry on. The twins are caught up in the swirling wonder of their dreams as their father turns his back and walks away.

And there—just in the shadows, is Death. Death watches, carefully shooing away the animals. It’s not time, not yet.  

* * *

Death is a stranger.

Alone and purposeless, Lup and Taako travel through the world of two suns. They’re barely fifty and have already seen so much. There are rules (there always are) about their travels. The never stay too long, they never go back, and they always leave before there’s trouble.

Sometimes though, Lup and Taako are the trouble.

She’s young. So young that her magic hasn’t even really taken form yet. It’s explosive and wild, demanding to be felt, to be used. They’re traveling with a troupe of performers, tucked away into their tent happily. Taako’s been making tiny bits of silvery wood, the firelight from Lup’s fingers catching on them to create a beautiful sparkle. Taako thinks they’re like diamonds, and Lup thinks her fire is life. Looking back on that night, on that moment, she’ll never be sure what caused the accident.     

It’s sudden. Her eyes are swimming in red and orange, and then their world is swimming in fire and orange. Taako grabs her hand, their bags, dragging her out of their tent while she still tries to understand.

Death is there, clinging to their clothes as the stench of burnt flesh. Death is there as Taako holds his sister close, huddling in the rain because they’ve run far enough and with this downpour, there’s nowhere else to go. But Death thinks that fifty is just too young, that he’s not ready yet and she hasn’t figured out how to cheat, that they’ve got bigger things than decaying in the rain.

Like stray cats they shake and fade, life flickering much like Lup’s flames. And Death comes. Death comes as an acolyte, nurturing and kind, who whisks the lonely two somewhere warm and safe.

* * *

Death is no one. 

Their time aboard the IPRE allows Taako to forget the grim mark upon his forehead; he can forget all the misery and doom that’s followed him, because aboard the Starblaster Death has no meaning. There is, of course, death, but it is not final. While the seven are never reckless, they have no reason to be afraid. There only needs to be one, one of seven, and then they will all begin again.

The circumstances change, of course, when Lup and Barry find a way to cheat death.

Perhaps it’s always been her destiny, to fight and rebel against everything, even the most essential part of the natural order of things. Death supposes that it fits her character; honestly, Death had never expected to claim her.

Taako spends more time alive than some of the others, and Death supposes that is also fitting for character. At heart, Taako’s a coward. He will run, take the easy way out unless there’s no other option.  

Death waits, and Death watches, curious as to how these other five plan to avoid it, if they will at all.

* * *

Death is a lover. 

Death never expects to be so close, and yet through the Raven Queen, through Kravitz, it’s able to be.

Taako falls deep, deep in love. It’s something he never thought would happen, but Kravitz finds a way to steal his heart along with his objections to monogamy. Together they share eternity. Death doesn’t break them apart, doesn’t push them away from each other.

Before Kravitz, there was simply no way that Taako could ever understand Lup’s desire to spend her forever with Barry. He could never understand the depth of their affections. But then Kravitz stayed. Kravitz stayed through every moment of his life; he was there for every struggle, every happiness, every weakness. He loved Taako better than anyone else. Taako returned the sentiment, utterly taken with Kravitz. 

Both of them take comfort in the fact that they have more than Taako's life together. They can take their time because Istus has promised Taako an eternity, so long as he becomes her charge (he's already accepted). Kravitz and Taako dance through life slowly, never rushing, never waiting.

Death watches through a lover’s eyes, always wondering about when and how the promise of finality will be fulfilled.

* * *

Death is a friend. 

Taako is alone. Taako is alone in his home tucked away into a forest so ingrained with magical power it feels as if he’s somewhere far away from this earth, this plane. He is old, a long, long life spiraling out behind him with few regrets.

His family – what’s left of it – comes to see him when they can. Kravitz is around most often, holding his decaying husband’s hand and providing those gentle reminders of how life used to be. For Taako’s comfort and happiness, Kravitz takes the form of a much older half-drow, one that’s lived a long life (too long) and has the marks to show it. Taako appreciates it.

The string of his life runs short when he is alone.

Death swoops in for him, making due on that promise. The person who greets him as he steps from his body and into the passage between planes (looking more like himself than he has in quite some time) is someone he’s never seen before. The question of who dies on his lips.

The presence is familiar, and Taako realizes then, that he and Death have never been strangers. This person feels like every person he’s ever met, and he can’t help but wonder if this is really Death, or if this is something else. He’s quiet for a long stretch, simply looking at the hand offered to him as he tries to make up his mind.

In the end, he decides that it doesn’t really matter what this presence shaping itself like a person is. Death, if it is Death, has been there like an anchor in the storm. Now it’s here to take Taako to an eternity. An eternity he deserves, surrounded by his family, a chance to become an agent of Istus like no one else before him.

He takes the hand, and so ends Taako Taaco.

 

 

 


End file.
